Molven Bel-Harpy and Dr.
Julius Fong, two of the many characters involved in the development of the
Community share anecdotes of the past centuries over dinner in the Building.

History and Culture

Alpha Centauri is a
ternary star system 4.2 light years from Sol. In the mid 2020s the Darwin
programme funded by NASA turned its deep space eyes to investigating the
nearest star system to Sol in the hope of finding an Earth-like world around
either Alpha Centauri A or B.

They were not disappointed when the Darwin
team announced to a half interested planet the existence of a possible
candidate around the G2 primary. At the time the terran media had other matters
to focus on as the world of the 2020s was a turbulent and unsure time. But
amongst those who looked beyond the immediate concerns of everyday life the
possibility of a viable planet so close to Earth was a very exciting prospect.

By
the 2030s more evidence had been found for a multitude of viable planets around
nearby stars, the notion of other “Earths” had squeezed its way into the global
conciousness and for the first time the idea of actually sending a probe out to
investigate other worlds beyond Sol was seriously discussed. The takeoff of commercial
spaceflight, privately funded enterprises on Luna and a permantent presence on
Mars also gave credence to interstellar exploration, and perhaps someday
colonisation.

The
more information was gleamed about Alpha Centauri Ab the more promising it looked.
Earth grew used to the notion that someday, perhaps within the lifetime of the
youngest generation, humans would look up at the night sky and point to distant
star called Sol.

With the advent of the Inertialess
drive in the 2050s support for the
Centauri Mission grew, fuelled partly by the joy of discovery but mostly by the
prospect of a whole other Earth to exploit and a privately held notion that
humanity had better get to the star before the Blee did!

In
2061 AD the Odyssey left the L4 orbital cluster for the 6 year journey
to Alpha Centauri Ab (which by then had anumber of unofficial names varying
from “New Earth”, “Nova Terra”, “Eden”, “Haven” etc.) Using the latest in
Quantum Tunnelling technology for instant communication back home and utilising
plasma shielding to deflect the impacts of even the tiniset particle on a craft
moving at relativistc speeds the craft had an armoury of sensors, lander craft
and analysing tools at it disposal.

The
first close up shots of the terran-like world electrified the media back home.
The world had a comfortable similarity to mother Earth with glorious white
clouds covering a green and blue world rich in carbon based life-forms.

Analysis
of the biosphere revealed a very benign ecosystem compatible with human biology
and crying out for humans to settle on (calls by some Greens to have the world
spared from human interference where ignored!) A manned mission followed and
competition for a place on the Enterprise’s crew was fierce with many
nations and cultures wanting themselves represented on the team.

The Enterprise
arrived in orbit around the world that had been christened Elysium in 2078 AD.
The name was chosen after much argument and was the idea of the then 10
year-old daughter of the first scientist to announce the possible discovery of
the world (the fact that that same little girl was now the head of Centauri Mission was
also in her favour.)

To
avoid the same diplomatic squabbling on who would be the first to set foot on
the new world and so be forever remembered in history as had occurred on the
Mars mission back in 2021 AD the crew drew straws on who would make the “giant
leap.” So at 12:35 Terran Standard Time on September 11 2078 AD the Enterprise’s
head of the Xenobotany team a shy retiring man called Thomas Percy stepped out
of the Kirk landing module in front of an audience of billions (even the
Blee were watching this typical example of human pageantry!)

Attention
soon wavered on Earth as viewers were dissappointed to find a world devoid of
terrifying alien monsters or sinister mind altering artefacts and went back to
their humdrum lives mostly oblivious to the historic events unfolding around a
star light years away.

Elysium
found its way back into the news when it came time for the Enterprise to
return home (and possibly be broken up and sold off piece by piece to recoup
some of the enourmous cost.) twelve members of the crew decided not to return
back to Sol insead wishing to settle on the world, a planet free of centuries
old squabbles, taxes, pollution and corperate media values.

This
brought the idea of actually settling the world out of science fiction and
wishful thinking to some to quite an appealing concept to the great terran
public. Luna,
Mars
and a number of orbital
states had already announced their intentions towards Elysium. Savvy
politians and opportunistic mega-corps recognised a bandwagon when they saw one
and so the Centauri rush began.

Helped
along by the advent of widespread nano-technology
which although hadn’t perfected the “grow a spaceship in your backyard”
technology that some nano-enthusiasts had promised, was still bringing about a
revolution and during the 2090s a number of colonisation craft headed for the
new world.

Despite
the varied mix of cultures that were settling on Elysium conflict on the colony
was rare for example the Israelis expedition and the Arabic Mega-corp funded
contingent got along much better than their partners back on Earth. No one
nationality or culture achieved dominace over the planet and the Elysians were
fond of bragging to their terran cousins that their version of Earth was a
vision of paradise when compared to the corrupt old world.

By
the mid 22nd century Elysium held the proud distinction of the most
populated world outside of the home-worlds (almost 500 million) with a vast and
strong economy that rivalled those of Sol and could easily afford to terraform
a world such as Einstein (Alpha Centauri B III.)

The California Park district
of Capital City. The metropolis has blossomed from a small ecostudy outpost in
2113AD to one of the largest cities throughout Community space with a
population of 50 million living in its mighty towers and vast suburbs.

Vast cities straight out of the more
optimistic science fiction of the 20th and early 21st
centuries sprang out of no-where to accommodate the influx of hopefuls arriving
on each new colony ship. The influence of the first colonists (led by the
highly respected First Twelve) on shaping the mindset of these new arrivals was
strong. “Leaving the old world behind” was a slogan the first ones banded about
to cleanse the newcomers of their possibly destructive old habits.

Transhumanist thought was very prominent
amongst the Centaurians. Always embracing the new became a passion for them
which put off some prospective immigrants who didn’t want their precious old
world values challenged and mocked. To even mention Earth was considered bad
form in some areas and anything that was viewed as being more in the Earthers
interest than that of Centauri was view with great suspicion (terran mega-corps
had to be very careful when opening new markets in Centauri!)

Alpha Centauri was on of the first systems to
support whole-heartedly the concept of the Community
when it was first banded about the supranet in the late 22nd
century. It fitted in with the system’s view of how the galaxy should be, a
community of varied cultures and beings working together for the comman good
yet always aware that people want to be left alone to run their own lives
without some oppressive state system telling them what to do.

Alpha Centauri even
offered itself up as a neutral real-space venue for all the varied cultures of
the known galaxy (which at the time only extended out to 50 light years at its
furthest) but the limitations of relativistic travel only allowed small
delegations from the nearest systems to be practical.

With interstellarcrises such as the Beta
Comae Liberation, the plight of the Novagens
in the Beta
Hydri system and the conflict at Zeta
Tucanae occurring in the 23rd century Alpha Centauri as a nation
remained staunchly neutral, perhaps for fear of making unprofitable enemies on
the interstellar scene or letting its substantial industrial might gett
drawn in to some kind intersteller arms race.

When Warp
travel arrived mid century Alpha Centauri received another influx of arrivals,
this time far more exotic than the dispossed and hopeful immigrants from Sol the
previous century. The system was at the forefront of research into warp travel
and eventually built one of the largest fleets of warp vessels of the time (examples
of which are proudly displayed at the Centauri Museum at Elysium’s L4 point.)

Centauri ships where noted for being the
usually preferred vehicle for diplomats and couriers for those systems who
hadn’t a big warp vessel industry. Centauri designs were very influencial even
to this day thanks to the work of the many shipbuilding habitats in the major
Centauriasteroid belt in the region
between the two primaries (where the conflicting gravitational pull of the two
stars prohibited any major world from forming.)

Thanks to the forward
thinking of such personalities as Imany Percy and Dr. Julis Fong almost a
century ago Alpha Centauri had carved a niche for itself as the ideal site for
any real-space foundation of the Community. In 2292 AD building work commenced
on the Community Building, a place in which representatives of every polity,
culture and species that considered itself part of the Community could meet in
person. Its followed the designs of the gifted (and some say more than slightly
eccentric) architect Hans Frober-Xiang.

An acclaimed designer of arcologies for many
decades his plans for the Community Building defied convention and stretched
the building methods of the time to the limit to construct his 5 km high
vision. Hans said his inspiration for the Building was the notion of
communication and representing the vastness and diversty of the all the
sapients in the known universe. For most it conveyed in real-space the very
essance of the Concourse in literally being a place where anyone could meet
with anyone else and discuss the ways of the universe.

Today the Building’s
inhabitants are as diverse as Hans hoped they would be with all manner of
beings wandering around , meeting new people, taking part in discussions on how
the Community operates and conducts itself with the outside universe. Hans now
inhabits the very structure of the Building having uploaded in 2513 AD and
watches on in quiet contentment as his dream continues to evolve (as well as
being privy to conversations and events that shape the whole Community!)

A SUV takes its passengers to one of the resorts on the
continent of New Israel. At this time both Alpha Centauri A and B can be seen
in daytime.

With the Community
Building dominating the cities that would merge into Capital the Alpha Centauri
system became seen as the very centre of Community civilisation and culture.
When the C.D.F.
came into being in the late 24th
century the obvious choice for its central operations was again Alpha Centauri.
Star Centralwas placed at the Lagrange
point between Centauri A and B supported by the shipbuilding habitats in the
Belt and since then has grown from humble beginnings as a series of biosphere
caverns and spaceports in a metal rich asteroid known as Charlie to the massive
mega-structure it is today , home to the 1st fleet and possibly the
most heavily defended region in the Community outside of the Cesola
region and the Hadar/EnlizaWormhole.

With Alpha Centauri becoming so important on
the Galactic scene Elysium had to stop immigration to the surface for the most
part at the turn of the 25th century to avoid the biosphere
suffering the same trauma as heavily populated worlds such as Earth or Ese.
Instead the influx of people and organisations that wanted to be close to the
action constructed orbitals around Elysium, vast habitats at strategic points
throughout the systems, world cities on barren moons or rocky planets or set up
shop on terraformed Einstein (which for the Centaurians is seen as a little
more laid back than the fast paced life of cosmopolitan Elysium.)

Today Alpha Centauri is
a constant buzz of activity with hundreds of ships flitting between the many
habitats, worlds and wormholes. Centauri has one of the biggest wormhole nodes
in the Community with every system in range wanting a connection to the system.
Having a wormhole link direct to Capital carries a certain prestige as well as
bringing in the cash as travellers from all over known space flock to the
Capital.

The population of Centauri today is a very
cosmopolitan mix of every culture and species in the Community having a suburb,
town or habitat to call their own. Capital City is a prime example of this with
every district home to a different minority displaying the best their culture
has to offer. Indeed it is a common held notion that if you want to see the
galaxy save your money and just wander around Capital City instead!

Most outsiders have an embassy on or around
Elysium from the Mourno
city ship in permanent orbit to the Zarquon
embassy Arcology which dominates the skyline of the New Beverly Hills district
and is laid siege by a never-ending supply of protesters demonstrating around
the clock on everything from Zarquon sapient rights abuses to campaigns for the
truth about the many thousands missing from the end of the War.